Recent negotiations over Cyprus’ bailout plan tested the hard wrought stability of a union which seemed finally to have solved a few of its core problems. Few imagined that the Mediterranean country’s financial problems, well known in adv...

A relatively short distance of road leading in to the city centre of Tallinn has been a good reflection of the state of the country during these last few years. Just in the outskirts of town, before buildings start to consecutively become more and mo...

The oscillations of the European debt crises have become quite familiar to those observing it. A country or national bank suffers from a negative spiral of debt and fading confidence. This is followed by a new nudge in the direction of deeper integra...

In many European countries, two important but ailing institutions are currently interlinked: sovereign states and national banks. The interdependency between them explains in large measure why the continent’s leaders are contemplating a banking uni...

As usual, article can also be found at http://bit.ly/ztYYlD Last Friday saw the culmination of efforts that had started their official trajectory in the last days of July of last year when it was made official that Greece would be allowed to w...

Less than a week left for my dissertation deadline. I am starting to find quotes of this nature worryingly amusing. Credit to R. Kroszner and BiS: “Rather than a single bank accepting deposits from households and making commercial loans to fir...

People have complained that there are no pictures on my blog.. Chart maps EU27 countries and their annual budget deficit / surplus. Assessing the performance of Europe’s Stability and Growth Pact, where a country may not breach a budget deficit of...

I’m writing my dissertation currently, generating economics jokes I am too ashamed to write or mention. Beyond these silent nights, I am still writing for atlanticsentinel.com, do drop by. With the recent appointment of a former European com...

Article can also be found on Altanticsentinel: http://bit.ly/vGG4VM On Thursday morning last week, negotiations had finally come to a close. After a week of meetings between European leaders and parties involved in the continent’s sovereign debt...

A shorter article coincides with my first day of studies, hmm. Can also be found at atlanticsentinel.com José Manuel Barroso, president of the European Commission, announced last week that the European Union’s executive body would soon release a r...

Crashing OS’s (evil Ubuntu), new city and new work (lovely Edinburgh), and other commitments, has left me with little time to write recently. Yet, with such an interesting August, how can one resist? Article can also be found at Atlanticsentine...

Once again, the good people at Atlanticsentinel.com have given me some space to write. The text below can also be found at http://bit.ly/pgRI6C The last two weeks have proven interesting for people who follow the unfolding situation in Europe fo...

I’ve had the good fortune to be asked to contribute to atlanticsentinel.com. Below is my first contribution. Among the many culprits appearing after the great recession were the credit rating agencies. Their negative effect on the financia...

The problematic part with writing an article about the survival of the Euro is the speed with which there is a change to the situation. Last time I was taking notes the prime minister of Portugal, Sócrates, had just resigned as parliament had...

Studying for my environmental economics exam has meant that quite some time has been devoted to The Stern Review and its economic implications. According to the Guardian, Stern updated his original assessment that 1% of an...

This was originally written for my application to MEU2011 which I was not able to attend due to an exam. However, it seems to fit a first post quite well. “Speak softly and carry a big stick, you will go far.” The p...